Abstract
Abstract Guayule natural rubber is commercially available as an emulsion base-material for latex medical devices, including medical gloves and catheters. These products do not cause reactions in Type I latex allergic humans. In addition to natural rubber, guayule produces terpene resin comprised of hundreds of isoprenoid compounds. One group, the guayulins, is a major terpenoid component of guayule resin; the most abundant, guayulin A, comprises 1–10% of the resin fraction. An earlier study concluded that guayulins are contact sensitizers in guinea pigs, although they appeared much less sensitizing in humans. The possibility that residual guayulins may be present in the guayule natural rubber emulsions at a sensitizing level is of concern. We quantified the levels of guayulin and resin in purified natural rubber emulsions, using HPLC. Guayulin concentrations fell rapidly, due to hydrolysis at high pH, reaching a steady state after 4–6 weeks. The localized lymph node assay (LLNA) in mice was used to assess...
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